"previous position in front of the Reichstag. The Kurfürstendamm is home to some of Berlin's luxurious stores with the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church at its eastern end on Breitscheidplatz. The church was destroyed in the Second World War and left in ruins. Nearby on Tauentzienstraße is KaDeWe, claimed to be continental Europe's largest department store. The Rathaus Schöneberg, where John F. Kennedy made his famous ""Ich bin ein Berliner!"" speech, is situated in Tempelhof-Schöneberg. West of the center, Bellevue Palace is the residence of the German President. Charlottenburg Palace, which was burnt out in the Second World War, is the"
"Berlin crisis Kennedy's government faced a dramatic increase in the defense budget. The negative balance of payments with the European allies had aggravated American fiscal problems. At the end of 1961 Robert McNamara concluded an arrangement with West Germany whereby the latter was to annually purchase some American military hardware. However this only partially alleviated the payments issue. On June 26, 1963 Kennedy arrived in West Berlin and visited Checkpoint Charlie. On that day he delivered his famous ""Ich bin ein Berliner"" speech in front of 150,000 West Germans. In remarks to his aides on Berlin Wall Kennedy noted that"
"leaving us."" The speech is known for its famous phrase """"Ich bin ein Berliner"""" (""I am a citizen of Berlin""). A million people were on the street for the speech. Kennedy remarked to Ted Sorensen afterwards: ""We'll never have another day like this one, as long as we live."" In 1960, Kennedy stated, ""Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom."" Subsequently, as president, Kennedy initiated the"
"also he used the phrase ""civis Romanus sum"" by saying ""Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was to say, ""I am a citizen of Rome."" Today, I believe, in 1962 the proudest boast is to say, ""I am a citizen of the United States."" And it is not enough to merely say it; we must live it. Anyone can say it. But Americans who serve today in West Berlin—your sons and brothers --[...] are the Americans who are bearing the great burden."" The phrases ""I am a Berliner"" and ""I am proud to be in Berlin"" were typed already"
"November 2015, aged 86. Günter Schabowski Günter Schabowski (4 January 1929 – 1 November 2015) was an official of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (""Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands"" abbreviated ""SED""), the ruling party during most of the existence of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Schabowski gained worldwide fame in November 1989 when he improvised a slightly mistaken answer to a press conference question, raising popular expectations much more rapidly than the government planned so that massive crowds gathered the same night at the Berlin Wall, forcing its opening after 28 years; soon after, the entire inner German border was opened."
"the citizens in the western sectors had to come together. Ernst Reuter became their spokesman and leader, a symbolic figure of the ""Free"" Berlin. Memorable is Reuter’s speech in front of the burned-out Reichstag building on 9 September 1948, facing a crowd of 300,000 where he appealed to the world not to abandon Berlin. In the election that was conducted in the western part of Berlin two months later, his popularity gave the SPD the highest win with 64.5% ever achieved by any party in a free election in Germany. As mayor he formed a grand coalition government with the"
"the four allied powers, each with primary responsibility for a certain zone. Kennedy's speech marked the first instance where the U.S. acknowledged that East Berlin was part of the Soviet bloc along with the rest of East Germany. On July 25, 1961, Kennedy insisted in a presidential address that the U.S. would defend West Berlin, asserting its Four-Power rights, while making it clear that challenging the Soviet presence in Germany was not possible. The ""Ich bin ein Berliner"" speech is in part derived from a speech Kennedy gave at a Civic Reception on May 4, 1962, in New Orleans; there"
"Günter Schabowski Günter Schabowski (4 January 1929 – 1 November 2015) was an official of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (""Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands"" abbreviated ""SED""), the ruling party during most of the existence of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Schabowski gained worldwide fame in November 1989 when he improvised a slightly mistaken answer to a press conference question, raising popular expectations much more rapidly than the government planned so that massive crowds gathered the same night at the Berlin Wall, forcing its opening after 28 years; soon after, the entire inner German border was opened. Schabowski was born in"
"Heinz Schäfer Heinz Schäfer (born c. 1930/31) is a former East German Stasi officer who was present during at least two significant European events of the Cold War years. On 27 October 1961, Soviet and US forces confronted one another at Berlin's Checkpoint Charlie, creating the potential for all-out war between the powers. Heinz Schäfer was an East German border guard at the time, and states that only by keeping calm did both sides avoid catastrophic confrontation. 9 November 1989 marked the opening of the Berlin Wall. Schäfer—at the time a Stasi colonel—claims to have been the first to open"
"Germany. Berlin Declaration (1909) The Berlin declaration (German: ""Berliner Erklärung"") was a theological statement by 56 leading Evangelical theologians in Germany. The declaration condemns the German Pentecostal movement which had started two years earlier in Kassel. It stated that the Pentecostal movement was “not from above, but from below”. The declaration specifically mentions Jonathan Paul as the movement’s leader, but it is not clear that Jonathan Paul saw himself as such. The declaration was formally revoked by the Gnadauer Gemeinschaftsverbandes in a statement of January 2009. This move is seen a major step toward reconciliation between Pentecostals and non-Pentecostal churches"
"Berlin Wall went up. Kurt Wismach Kurt Wismach was an East German laborer at the Oberspree Cable Works. He is famous for heckling East German leader Walter Ulbricht during a speech Ulbricht gave to the firm on August 10, 1961. Speaking three days before the Berlin border closure, Ulbricht extolled the purported virtues of East German socialism and denounced the growing numbers of refugees fleeing to West Germany. Seated above Ulbricht on a roll of cables, Wismach applauded sarcastically after each of Ulbricht’s main points and yelled: ""Even if I am the only one to say it: Free elections!"" He"
"Republic of Germany. In 1955 he became an honorary citizen of Berlin. One of the new parliamentary buildings which serves Bundestag members in Berlin is named after Löbe. At the time of Löbe's state funeral at the Rathaus Schöneberg on 9 August 1967, Andreas Baader (the later Red Army Faction militant), the author Hans Magnus Enzensberger, and others in a satirical rally carried a coffin bearing the words “SENAT” to the front of the city hall. From inside the coffin, the ""Kommune 1"" activist Dieter Kunzelmann, wearing a nightgown, and fellow demonstrators passed out leaflets proclaiming “Today you want to"
"from its previous position in front of the Reichstag in 1938 by the Nazis. The Kurfürstendamm is home to some of Berlin's luxury shops, restaurants, and cafes, with the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church at its eastern end on Breitscheidplatz (the church was destroyed in World War II and left in ruins, but was rebuilt between 1959 and 1963); theaters and concert halls, such as Philharmonie Berlin and Theater am Kurfürstendamm, are also located in the neighborhood. Nearby on Tauentzienstraße, is KaDeWe, continental Europe's largest department store. The Rathaus Schöneberg (""City Hall""), where John F. Kennedy made his famous ""Ich bin"
"the dictatorship of the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (""SED""). It was a dangerous situation, with the possibility of a clash between the demonstrators and armed forces. One of the speakers at the Alexanderplatz demonstration was Friedrich Schorlemmer. He called for change and a new beginning, but he also pleaded for nonviolence. After the Berlin Wall had been opened on 9 November 1989, a lot of people left East Germany. Schorlemmer and others published a passionate appeal to stay and build up a new and better kind of society there: ""Für unser Land"" (""For our country""). Still, the majority"
"and separated it from East Berlin and the GDR. In 1961 the government of East Germany named the erected wall as the ""Anti-Fascist Protection Wall"", a part of the inner German border; many Berliners, however, called it """"Schandmauer"""" (""Wall of Shame""). The term was coined by governing mayor Willy Brandt. Outside Germany it first appeared as ""Wall of Shame"" in a cover story published by Time Magazine in 1962, and President of the United States John F. Kennedy used the term in his Annual Message to the US Congress on the State of the Union, January 14, 1963. The Berlin"
"1923. On 9 November 1918, from a balcony of the Kaiser's Berliner Stadtschloss, Liebknecht declared Germany a ""Free Socialist Republic"". However, earlier on the same night, Philipp Scheidemann of the SPD had declared a republic from the Reichstag. In December 1918, the Spartakusbund formally renamed itself the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). In January 1919, the KPD, along with the Independent Socialists, launched the Spartacist uprising. This included staging massive street demonstrations intended to destabilize the Weimar government, led by the centrists of the SPD under Chancellor Friedrich Ebert. The government accused the opposition of planning a general strike and"
"Berlin Declaration (1909) The Berlin declaration (German: ""Berliner Erklärung"") was a theological statement by 56 leading Evangelical theologians in Germany. The declaration condemns the German Pentecostal movement which had started two years earlier in Kassel. It stated that the Pentecostal movement was “not from above, but from below”. The declaration specifically mentions Jonathan Paul as the movement’s leader, but it is not clear that Jonathan Paul saw himself as such. The declaration was formally revoked by the Gnadauer Gemeinschaftsverbandes in a statement of January 2009. This move is seen a major step toward reconciliation between Pentecostals and non-Pentecostal churches in"
"of Berlin-Köpenick on Niebergall Street which reads in German: Berlin Declaration (1945) By the Berlin Declaration () of 5 June 1945, the four governments of the United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom and France, acting on behalf of the Allies of World War II, jointly assumed ""supreme authority"" over German territory and asserted the legitimacy of their joint determination of issues regarding its administration and boundaries, prior to the forthcoming Potsdam Conference. The German Instrument of Surrender of 8 May 1945 had provided only for the military capitulation of German armed forces, the German signatories being representatives of the German"
"the last one Sorensen could have worked on. Robert Lochner claimed in his memoirs that Kennedy had asked him for a translation of ""I am a Berliner"", and that they practiced the phrase in Brandt's office. Daum credited the origin of the phrase ""Ich bin ein Berliner"" to Kennedy and his 1962 speech in New Orleans quoted above. According to Daum, Kennedy was affected by seeing the Berlin Wall, so that he ""falls back on the most memorable passage of his New Orleans speech given the year before, changing pride in being an American in being a Berliner."" Behind the"
"Germany established 17 June as a national holiday, called ""Day of German Unity"". Upon German reunification in October 1990, it was moved to 3 October, the date of formal reunification. The extension of the boulevard ""Unter den Linden"" to the west of the Brandenburg Gate, called ""Charlottenburger Chaussee"", was renamed Straße des 17. Juni (English: ""17 June Street"") following the 1953 rebellion. The event is commemorated in the following poem by Bertolt Brecht: Other prominent GDR authors who dealt with the uprising include Stefan Heym (""Fünf Tage im Juni"" / ""Five Days in June"", Munich 1974) and Heiner Müller (""Wolokolamsker"
"Checkpoint Charlie Checkpoint Charlie (or ""Checkpoint C"") was the name given by the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War (1947–1991). East German leader Walter Ulbricht agitated and maneuvered to get the Soviet Union's permission to construct the Berlin Wall in 1961 to stop Eastern Bloc emigration and defection westward through the Soviet border system, preventing escape across the city sector border from communist East Berlin into West Berlin. Checkpoint Charlie became a symbol of the Cold War, representing the separation of East and West. Soviet and American"
"a major propaganda campaign. On 18 February 1943, he made a nationally broadcast speech from the Berlin Sportpalast before a hand-picked audience of 14,000 Nazi die-hards, in which he extolled the necessity of a Spartan way of life in order to achieve total war. Throughout the speech the crews filming the event panned in and out on prominent people for added dramatic effect. Goebbels roused his audience with rhetorical questions; he was interrupted more than 200 times by shouts, slogans and wildly enthusiastic applause: Are you and the German people determined, if the Leader orders it, to work ten, twelve,"
"31 May 1961, East Berlin was officially called ""Berlin, Hauptstadt der DDR"" (Berlin, Capital of the GDR), replacing the formerly used term ""Democratic Berlin"", or simply ""Berlin"", by East Germany, and ""Berlin (Ost)"" by the West German Federal government. Other names used by West German media included ""Ost-Berlin"" and ""Ostberlin"" (both meaning ""East Berlin"") as well as ""Ostsektor"" or ""Eastern Sector"". These different naming conventions for the divided parts of Berlin, when followed by individuals, governments, or media, commonly indicated their political leanings, with the centre-right ""Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung"" using ""Ost-Berlin"" and the centre-left ""Süddeutsche Zeitung"" using ""Ostberlin"". The naming"
"was one of the symbols of the March Revolution of 1848. In order to endorse its republican and liberal tradition, the song was chosen as the national anthem of Germany in 1922, during the Weimar Republic. West Germany adopted the """" as its official national anthem in 1952 for similar reasons, with only the third stanza sung on official occasions. Upon German reunification in 1990, only the third stanza was confirmed as the national anthem. The song is also well known by the beginning and refrain of the first stanza, """" (""Germany, Germany above all""), but this has never been"
"the parliament's sessions, and physically menaced its non-Communist members. The Kremlin organised an attempted putsch for control of all of Berlin through a 6 September takeover of the city hall by SED members. Three days later RIAS Radio urged Berliners to protest against the actions of the communists. On 9 September 1948 a crowd of 500,000 people gathered at the Brandenburg Gate, next to the ruined Reichstag in the British sector. The Airlift was working so far, but many West Berliners feared that the Allies would eventually discontinue it. Then-SPD city councillor Ernst Reuter took the microphone and pleaded for"
"East German leader Walter Ulbricht to begin construction of what became known as the Berlin Wall, which would surround West Berlin. Construction preparations were made in great secrecy, and the border was sealed off in the early hours of Sunday, 13 August 1961, when most East German workers who earned hard currency by working in West Berlin would be at their homes. The wall was a propaganda disaster, and marked the end of Khrushchev's attempts to conclude a peace treaty among the Four Powers and the two German states. That treaty would not be signed until September 1990, as an"
"Sportpalast speech The ""Sportpalast"" speech () or total war speech was a speech delivered by German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels at the Berlin Sportpalast to a large but carefully selected audience on 18 February 1943 calling for a total war, as the tide of World War II was turning against Nazi Germany and its Axis allies. It is considered the most famous of Joseph Goebbels's speeches. The speech was the first public admission by the Nazi leadership that Germany faced serious dangers. Goebbels exhorted the German people to continue the war even though it would be long and difficult because—as"
"chancellor Konrad Adenauer held a press conference in Berlin addressing this occurrence: ""I believe it was last year at a sporting event in the Cologne Stadium. There were also Belgian military present. At the end the national anthems were played, and the band, who obviously had a very efficient and intelligent leader, and had no particular instructions about what should be played for Germany, played the lovely carnival song ""Ich bin ein Einwohner von Trizonesien"" [""sic""]. What I'm telling you now is secret — not for publication: many Belgian soldiers stood up and saluted, believing that it was the national"
"Uprising of 1953 in East Germany The Uprising of 1953 in East Germany started with a strike by East Berlin construction workers on 16 June 1953. It turned into a widespread uprising against the German Democratic Republic government the next day. In Germany, the revolt is often called People's Uprising in East Germany (""Volksaufstand in der DDR""). It involved more than one million people in about 700 localities. 17 June was a public holiday in West Germany up until reunification, and is still a ""Gedenktag"". Strikes and working class networks, particularly relating to the old Social Democratic Party of Germany,"
"Bommi Baumann Michael ""Bommi"" Baumann (August 25, 1947 – July 19, 2016) was one of the founders of the German organization Movement 2 June, author of a memoir, and a former militant. Baumann was a construction worker. His nickname derives from his favorite drink, ""Bommi mit Pflaume"" (plum-flavoured spirit), although it is often wrongly attributed to his occasional preference for explosives during student unrests. In the 1960s, he got in touch with the West Berlin student movement and with ""Kommune 1"". His views became more radical after various experiences with police, media and bureaucracy. After the death of Benno Ohnesorg"
"under God shall have a new birth of freedom"". The bell subsequently visited 26 American cities, and people in every state were encouraged to sign a ""Declaration of Freedom"". 16 million signatures from American citizens were collected and are enshrined in Berlin along with the bell. The bell then traveled to Berlin, and was permanently installed in the West Berlin city hall on United Nations Day, October 24, 1950. More than 400,000 Berliners filled the square before the city hall (now John-F.-Kennedy-Platz) to witness the dedication ceremonies. General Clay gave a speech and pushed the button that started the bell"
"1942 and first believed any of it from foreign reports towards the end of 1944. During a CDU party conference in Berlin on 7 November 1968, Klarsfeld mounted the podium of the Berlin Congress Hall, slapped Kiesinger, and shouted ""Nazi, Nazi, Nazi"". A few days later, during an interview with ""Der Spiegel "" she maintained that she had already planned the slap on May 9, 1968. She said that she had wanted to express that part of the German people - especially the youth - who were opposed to a Nazi being the head of the Federal Government. Berlin was"
"and to pass it on to the coming generations as a reminder to stand up for freedom and democracy to ensure that such injustice may never happen again,"" entreated Mayor Wowereit. ""It has been shown once again: Freedom is invincible at the end. No wall can permanently withstand the desire for freedom"", proclaimed President Wulff."" Notes Bibliography Further reading Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany), starting on 13 August 1961, the Wall cut off (by"